Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers March Slice a Day Challenge!
I’m slicing every day this month. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

At the grocery store, I stare at my items on the conveyor belt. I didn’t think I needed this much for our spring break, but I guess it makes sense.

Veggies
Chips
Dip
Vegan Mac & Cheese
Strawberries
Wine
Firelogs
Dark Chocolate
Wine
Vitamins
Zinc
Laundry Detergent…

I wonder if people think it’s an odd assortment of items – I even try to take a picture to show off how strange it is.

Or maybe anyone passing by can just tell that it’s a mom’s conveyor belt for Spring break:  Snacks by the fire, easy dinners, let’s not get sick, there’s no more hand sanitizer on the shelves, and by the way, we also need to keep up with the laundry.

One of my items doesn’t ring right, and I joke with the clerk, “I’m just here to make your day more exciting!”

“Oh, that’s just what I need,” she says, “after that last family with an $881 order! Three carts worth!”

“Wow,” I say. I feel better about the size of my order.

“Yea, I don’t know if they were one of those people in a panic, stocking up for the pandemic or what,” she says.

“Well, I’m just stocking up for Spring Break!” (Aren’t I witty with the checkout banter?)

And then we talk about hand washing, and how shouldn’t people be doing that anyway? I tell her I’m a teacher, so hand washing is kind of second nature to me.

“Oh, yea,” she says. “That’s what I did too. I was a teacher. I remember back when we had a flu scare. The county brought in gigundo bottles of hand sanitizers and huge boxes of tissues. But then they took us teachers aside to tell us that we shouldn’t use the hand sanitizer too much, or it would stop working against the germs. Soap and water are the best.”

I agree that soap and water are the best bet, she hands me my receipt and we say goodbye,  wishing each other good health.

I feel kind of weird about it, but I take a squirt of the hand sanitizer on my way past the bottle attached to the end of the counter. I mean, better safe than sorry.